


Shoe Christmas

by Gleennui



Category: Glee
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Fuckurt Advent, Gift Giving, Jealousy, M/M, Realization, St. Nicholas Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-03
Updated: 2015-12-03
Packaged: 2018-05-04 16:54:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5341502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gleennui/pseuds/Gleennui
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shoe Christmas isn't even a real holiday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shoe Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Fuckurt Advent 2015 -- Day 3

“In your _shoes_? That’s weird, Quinn.” Puck shakes his head and makes a face. Quinn was always a little weird, with the way she hung on Finn’s arm and looked at him while making funny eyes, but this was the weirdest thing she’d ever said. 

“No. It’s not.” Quinn turns away from Puck and smiles up at Finn. “You put your shoes out at night, and in the morning, there’s a present.” 

“What part of that isn’t weird?” Puck insists, ignoring Quinn’s ignoring of him. “And I don’t get it. I thought Santa showed up on Christmas. What’s he doing three weeks early?” 

Quinn sighs loud enough for Puck to hear and answers Puck but keeps looking up at Finn when she does. “It’s Euro _pean_ ,” she says, rolling her eyes. 

“We’re not in Eur _ope_ ,” Puck sasses back. “And Finn and me always do one night of Hanukkah and then Christmas Eve together, so we each get presents. We don’t do Shoe Christmas.” 

“We could maybe do Shoe Christmas. Or I could do Shoe Christmas, ‘cause you don’t do Christmas.” Finn shrugs, looking at Puck almost like he’s sorry he’s saying it. 

Puck scowls. Finn’s supposed to be on his side. That’s the rule. They’re always on the same side of stuff, at least as far as other people are concerned. 

Quinn beams and touches Finn’s arm, which makes Puck scowl harder. Finn doesn’t want a girl touching his arm. He wants to play football and hang out with Puck. Quinn should know that. 

The bell rings at that point, so Finn turns away from Quinn, making her drop her hand. Puck smirks at that and then smirks even more when Finn grins at Puck. “Ready for Math?”

“Question is, are _you_ ready?” Puck says, bumping Finn’s shoulder. 

“Hey, I studied this time!” Finn mock-glares until Puck laughs and sticks his tongue out. 

“Dude. I’m giving you a hard time. Or are you trying to get a calculator for Shoe Christmas?” Puck’s trying not to scowl again, but it must not work, because Finn just looks sad. 

“Why are you mad at Quinn? She didn’t do anything wrong.” 

“Why is she talking about dumb holidays we don’t celebrate?” Puck scuffs his sneakers on the floor, making them squeak. “ _We_ do Hanukkah for me and Christmas for you. No shoes. She’s ruining stuff.” 

Finn doesn’t answer, but he also doesn’t talk to Puck at all, or even look at him, all through class and even after, when Puck waits for him to walk out together. Puck can feel the scowl come back as he walks silently next to Finn to wait for Finn’s mom to pick them up. He can’t figure out why Finn is so mad at him. Quinn’s the one who butt into their holidays. He glances over at Finn, who looks like he’s deliberately _not_ looking at Puck. Maybe Finn just really wants to celebrate Shoe Christmas now, and Puck’s keeping him from his Shoe Fun. 

Finn doesn’t talk to Puck all through the drive to Puck’s, either, and when Puck gets home, he sits at the computer in the living room and tries to figure out what this Shoe Christmas is really all about. The more he reads about it, the less it sounds really dumb and the more it sounds like something Finn would really like to get a gift for. Finn loves surprise presents, and Puck really loves giving them to Finn, especially when he makes his surprised face and smiles really huge. 

Puck squirms a little in his mom’s old desk chair, thinking about how happy it would make Finn to get a present. His stupid traitorous brain goes right from there to thinking about Quinn giving Finn a Shoe Christmas gift, and he’s scowling again before he can help himself, the tips of his ears feeling hot with something that Puck has to admit to himself feels an awful lot like jealousy. _That_ thought makes Puck squirm even more, and he has to get up from the computer and walk around. 

Puck’s not used to feeling jealous of anyone, but he’s can’t deny that the idea of Quinn making Finn get that happy surprised face makes Puck ball up his hands into fists and want to go over to Finn’s right now to make sure she can’t get anywhere near his shoes. While he’s admitting stuff to himself, Puck realizes that between the jealous feeling and wanting to make Finn happy, there’s really only one conclusion he can reach. 

He paces himself all the way into his room and closes the door. It’s not like the idea of wanting to date Finn is weird or scary or anything. It mostly feels normal and pretty cool, like something was just waiting for him to realize that was what he wanted. What Puck’s worried about is that Finn might not want to date him back. He’s known Finn since they were seven, which is officially just more than half their lives now, so part of him wants to say that he’d be able to tell for sure if Finn liked him like that, but he’s not sure he’s _ever_ seen Finn like anyone like that, so maybe Finn’s thinking like Puck is and doesn’t know if Puck likes him like that either. 

Puck lies down on his bed, his feet still with his sneakers on hanging off the side. The 6th is two days from now, so if Puck really wants to get Finn something, he’ll need to buy it before tomorrow. He mentally calculates how much cash he has stuffed in the toe of his boot in his closet. It’s enough at least for a couple movie tickets and some popcorn, and Puck grins to himself, checking the time. It’s not even dinnertime, and if he hurries, he can make it to the theater and back before his Ma takes the tuna noodle out of the oven. 

He’s right that he’s able to get to the theater, buy vouchers, and get home before his Ma gets the casserole on the table, and he walks into school the next day with a little extra strut. Finn’s already as his locker when Puck strides up, and seems like he jumps when Puck bangs his own locker open next to Finn. 

“I’m sleeping over tonight. Mario Kart rematch,” Puck says simply, and Finn turns to look at him. 

“Are you still mad?” 

“I wasn’t mad,” Puck says, and it’s true. He was jealous. Not mad. “Are you mad?”

Finn shakes his head. “I’m not mad if you’re not mad, but you were making that face and you kept saying stuff that made me upset.” 

Puck sighs. “I know. I was an ass. But I’m still coming over, okay?” 

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Finn nods. “But we’re stopping for chips on the way home. My mom got the gross salt and vinegar kind on Saturday.” 

 

They play Mario until 2am, their hands sticky with cheeto and BBQ chip dust from the good chips, until they’re falling asleep at the controllers. Puck waits until he’s sure Finn’s asleep, his breathing slow and heavy from just above Puck’s sleeping bag, and then he pulls the tickets out of his jeans pocket and creeps downstairs. Finn leaves his shoes by the back door, so it’s not hard for Puck to put the tickets in one of them, the tops sticking out enough that Finn won’t put his foot in his shoe without looking. 

Puck’s not sure that he gets much sleep after he crawls back into his sleeping bag, but he must, because the next thing he knows, Finn’s face is inches from his face. 

“Puck,” Finn whispers, or at least he probably thinks he’s whispering, except it’s really loud-sounding in Puck’s ear. “My mom made pancakes and then she said she’ll take up to Game Stop.” 

“Oh hell yeah,” Puck grins, stretching his arms over his head. He reluctantly follows Finn downstairs, pulling on his brand-new McKinley Football hoodie over his tshirt and still shivering as he does. Carole smiles at both of them, though Puck thinks she might be looking at him a little funny, and she serves them pancakes, pretend-scolding them when they use half the bottle of syrup in one sitting. 

“Finn,” Carole says, when they’re finally done and Finn’s wiping his face and hands with a wet paper towel, “Can you take out the recycling for me, please? It’s by the back door.” 

“Sure,” Finn shrugs, and Puck feels his eyes widen. He doesn’t look at Carole until Finn’s already bounding toward the back door, and she winks at him.

“Go ahead,” she nods in Finn’s direction, and Puck grins, trying not to stand up and follow Finn too fast. When Puck gets to the back door, Finn’s holding his shoe in one hand and the tickets in the other, looking down at them a little amazed and a little confused but definitely happy. 

“I figure we can sneak into _The Wrestler_ in a couple weeks,” Puck says, and Finn looks up, startled. “I’ve got enough for popcorn and drinks _and_ Sour Patch kids for you, too.” 

Finn blinks, but he’s still smiling. “You got this for me? For Shoe-- for St.-- and you’re going to buy my popcorn, too?” 

“Well, yeah,” Puck says, and it sounds way more confident than he feels. “That’s how dates work, right?” 

Finn watches Puck’s face for a minute, and Puck tries not to laugh, even though he feels a nervous kind of laugh bubbling up. He doesn’t want to make Finn think he’s playing a really cruel joke on him. “A date,” Finn says, but it doesn’t sound freaked-out or confused. Just amazed, again. “Yeah.” He looks down at the tickets and then back up at Puck. “Yeah, that’s how they work.” He grins bigger than was before, and Puck can’t help but grin back at the look on Finn’s face. It’s the exact happy-surprised look he was hoping for, only cranked way up. 

“Happy Shoe Christmas, Finn,” Puck says, stepping close enough to Finn that he could reach out and put his hand on Finn’s waist if he wanted to. “I guess this holiday’s not so bad, after all.”


End file.
